Perennial frontrunner University of Wisconsin-Madison took home the MacLean-Fogg Cup Saturday as winners of the ASE Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2016 Internal Combustion-class competition. UW-Madison topped a dozen other teams in the challenge’s most competitive class.

The Lapland University of Applied Sciences ran away with the Zero Emissions category, besting four other teams, and North Dakota State University won the Diesel Utility-class.

For some Badgers, the 2016 challenge was a capstone of their college years, and a springboard to careers.

“SAE has been my life for five years,” said UW-Madison’s Jennifer Bartaszewicz, who said she’s put about 10 to 15 hours a week into the challenge throughout college.

The team had a rough start this year, she said, when their sled broke an after-market belt in Monday’s endurance run.

“It went pretty smooth the rest of the week, though,” she said.

She and team members were more proud of the work leading up to the challenge, when they took on several large projects including boring and stroking their engine. The chasse stayed the same this year, she said, but there were plenty of major modifications.

That innovation is a hallmark of the challenge, said Bill Shapton Sr., who judged oral presentations – faux sales pitches for the sleds, actually.

“They’ve tried a lot of things that have influenced industry already,” he said.

Team members have also positioned themselves for after-college jobs in industry, noted North Dakota State University team advisor Robert Pieri. Most event judges and other officials come from the snowmobile, engine and component industries, and several students cited job offers and internships they credited to the challenge.

“We have a couple of students who participated who ended up with Polaris,” Pieri said.